Drawing of an Interior: Salon 1850

Curator: What a quietly elegant space! It’s got that feeling of poised expectation, like it's holding its breath. Editor: Yes, precisely! I feel like I could waltz right into that room. Now, what are we looking at exactly? Curator: This is "Drawing of an Interior: Salon" created around 1850 by an anonymous artist. It’s a pencil and watercolor piece currently residing here at The Met. The rendering, through the subtle blending of mediums, evokes so much more than just simple architectural record, no? Editor: Absolutely. There's a distinct softness. The colours are restrained, but deliberate – a little pop of red here, a smudge of blue there. The light streaming in suggests a late afternoon… What stories do you imagine within these walls? Curator: Given the likely social and political context of its time, I wonder what the artist seeks to reveal. Whose gaze is reflected by this rendering of wealth? Is it merely documentary, or does this echo of power and status present commentary? This seemingly empty space speaks to the narratives it could contain. Editor: You’ve sparked my imagination. It makes me want to get into the heads of the absent characters. Were the inhabitants wealthy elites navigating complex social norms, perhaps stifled by convention even within the beauty of this carefully crafted setting? Or something simpler? Perhaps this space provided freedom, creativity? I keep thinking this particular Salon may conceal forbidden liaisons! Curator: Indeed. The room is decidedly unfurnished, save for its architectural details, its decorative trims, and carefully rendered, tiled floor. It gives us freedom to place within it a wealth of possibilities, of differing degrees of comfort and tension. But why only suggest a setting? I suppose my impulse would be to better understand whose stories were considered unworthy of such rendering. Who did the walls not serve? Editor: I’m certain we could sit and wonder for days about such a humble, empty room. Its simplicity seems almost confrontational in the present day, somehow... Anyway, whatever one thinks of what’s contained – or not contained – it makes you wonder what a room is truly "for", right? Curator: Absolutely. These interiors prompt questions around domesticity and status… The tension in this work remains fascinating precisely because it is not fully stated, leaving much to interpretation and debate. Editor: Exactly!